Replace iMac 27 graphic card

Posted 11 May 2011 - 10:52 AM

diafebus

InsanelyMac Geek

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128 posts

hi guys!I own an iMac 27'' i7 2,8Ghz with 12GB Ram. So its a good machine. This iMac is an iMac late 2009 so it has an ATI Radeon HD 4850 512mb DDR3. For what I've readed this graphic card was not prepared at all to work with that high resolution screet at all, but I found this:

this is the ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB DDR5, and with help from ifixit.com I could change it without any problem.

The question is, does it worth the money?

Why I'd have to change it? What kind of user I am?When I'm on computer most of the time is gamming (and I like to put high settings on games and have fun with the detail), I do music productions where i7 2.8 is doing a great job, and of course navigation and chatting, so except from gaming this computer blasts in everything… (but when I bought it i was thinking to use it to game so I expected from a 2000€ computer it MUST do the job far well, but it didn't at all)

what are your recommendations? Is that far different this new/old grapphic? May I have to wait to see the new grapphics cards on macsales to see if they are compatible too with 2009 iMacs?

Posted 12 May 2011 - 08:49 PM

Erigz

InsanelyMac Protégé

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19 posts

Performance of HD5750 is comparable to HD4850. The first one can be a little faster, especially in very high resolutions as it has more VRAM, but don't expect to get much more fps than on 4850. In my opinion it's definitelly not worth that $400.
I think the only iMac GPU available now, that should be able to deal with 2560x1440 may be the 6970M in new 27'' iMacs. It's still a mobile version though, so it's performance won't be as good as desktop 6970.

Posted 13 May 2011 - 09:04 AM

diafebus

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128 posts

Performance of HD5750 is comparable to HD4850. The first one can be a little faster, especially in very high resolutions as it has more VRAM, but don't expect to get much more fps than on 4850. In my opinion it's definitelly not worth that $400. I think the only iMac GPU available now, that should be able to deal with 2560x1440 may be the 6970M in new 27'' iMacs. It's still a mobile version though, so it's performance won't be as good as desktop 6970.

For what i've readed this new one is far more superior than the 5xxx and 4xxx. So i think apple will still use that weird PCI express connector for this new graphic cards, so if the dissipator has the same shape it could fit into my iMac, I'll try to wait until new one are available on macsales or somewhere.

Posted 19 June 2013 - 04:00 PM

diafebus

InsanelyMac Geek

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128 posts

Hey! It's been quite a while but I managed to install a 6970m 1GB to my iMac late 2009, so I replaced the old 4850 and it worked like a charm. Well I don't get highest performance to game like Rage, but they play pretty well and the gfx cost me a bit less than $400 so it was a good price, I didn't go for the 2GB version because it was muuuuch more expensive and I don't think that this will make a huge difference.

So, everyone who is interested to know if this upgrade can be done, yes, it can, and it need a little bit of dremel job in a plastic to make cables fit ok, the guide is in ifixit.com

I did the operation in a bit less than 2h, plugged the power chord… clicked the power button and YAY it worked!

I've noticed aswell this new gfx gets a little bit less hotter than the previous one, the 4850 was at 83ºC on hot conditions, the new one never raised over 74ºC even gaming for an hour or two.

Well! Good luck if anybody else wants to try it!

PS: ah I also added an SSD replacing the CD Drive since I do not use it anymore, I maybe buy a case to mount the internal CD drive as an external.